Thoughts on Work and World Soccer

An American colleague of mine in Hamburg Germany noticed that something had changed in the German soccer team. The Germans had been playing a very defensive and often boring game as have other European teams. But this World Cup event the Germans hired a coach who is German but has been living in the United States.  This move caused huge discussions and criticisms in Germany.  The new coach changed the style of play to a much more aggressive and confrontational one with more individual initiative. 

This change in coaches led my friend to think about the differences between European and American styles of problem solving.  Americans tend to want to tackle the issue and Europeans may want to defer to authority figures or expect that basic problems must wait for the state to do something.  My colleague personally experienced this approach at work in the UK when he was told he could have access to data from the files to do a project. An Australian and this American worked together to get the data in front of them along with the pictures from the archives.  Getting the actual information gave them a better “handle” on what they needed as they handled samples and pictures. The person holding the data brought the two researchers lots of examples from different projects in the past and then they got an ad hoc group together to discuss their findings. When the top executive of their group found out what they were doing he want ballistic.  They were doing something without permission and “they might be excluding important people” from their study group.  They were being too “American.”  Yes, my American friend took the lead on this.

As an American, he just wanted to solve problems and get things done.  It’s very American to think that you have to get it done personally and not thrust the responsibility or include others or defer to authority. Taking initiative and being recognized is very American too!  So forgive Americans when they insist that’s the way to do things. Alas, sometimes Americans think that this is the only way.  My Dutch colleagues will tell you that consensus building is the only way.  We each have our preferred styles and ways of problem solving that work. You need to know what’s right for where you work.